Upcycling Sewing Tutorial: Sew a Baby Romper from a Men’s Shirt
What you need
- an old shirt
- the pattern in the correct size
- Fabric scissors
- Thread (preferably matching the denim)
- Buttons
- Sewing machine (if available, a buttonhole machine)
- Pins
- Iron
Sewing instructions
1. First, print, cut out, and tape together the pattern.
2. Then you can cut the shirt into its individual pieces. The resulting pieces are two sleeves, the left and right front pieces, and, if there are yokes, remove those as well. Depending on the position of the pocket and the pattern on the fabric, detach the pocket and press everything.
3. Now you can start cutting. The front pieces of the shirt become the front pieces of the coverall. Place the back piece of the shirt on the fold and cut out the back piece of the coverall. Use the remaining scraps to make the facings (buttonhole facing, 2x, and neckline facing). Cut the coverall sleeves from the shirt sleeves on the fold.
4. Now you can start sewing. First, stitch the button-placket facing to the button placket, right sides together, using a presser-foot width (0.5 cm) seam allowance. Then stitch this seam allowance to the facing close to the edge (approx. 0.2 cm). Next, press the facing in half and fold it completely inward. Now you can topstitch it from the outside close to the folded edge.
5. Next, you can close the side seams.
6. Now comes a tricky part: pin the crotch piece in place (right sides together), so that both button plackets lie on top of each other and the points of the crotch piece meet the leg seams. You did it! Now you can close the crotch together with the leg seams.
7. Then the sleeve seams can be closed (right sides together again), and you can attach the sleeves to the romper’s armholes.
8. Now you can press and topstitch the sleeve and leg hems. For this, press a 0.5 cm fold, then press a turn-up of approximately 0.7 cm. Topstitch 0.5 cm from the outside (the right side) of the romper.
9. For the neckline, fold the facing in half, then iron one of the raw edges toward the folded center. You can now attach the other raw edge at presser-foot width (right sides together). Leave 0.7 cm of seam allowance extending beyond the button plackets. The facing is now sewn to the button placket. To do this, with the facing unfolded, topstitch it along the outer edge of the button placket (vertically) up to the pressed fold. You’ve managed that too! Now you can fold everything inward and push out the corners of the facing at the button placket (using a pen, for example).
To finally attach the neckline facing, topstitch it approximately 1.5 cm from the outside (the right side).
10. Finally, all that remains is to mark the buttonhole positions on the upper button placket according to the pattern and sew the buttonholes. You can then determine the button positions through the buttonholes and sew them on.
Now you have a cute romper :)
